


Big brother complex

by DearCat



Series: Tumblr Archive [21]
Category: Bleach, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, Ichigo's Older Brother Vibes: lvl God, Ichigo's not having your shit, he's so done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:46:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22495816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DearCat/pseuds/DearCat
Summary: Ichigo moves out of Karakura. It should probably surprise him that he ends up finding chaos anyway.It doesn't.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo & Reborn, Kurosaki Ichigo & Sawada Tsunayoshi, Reborn & Sawada Tsunayoshi
Series: Tumblr Archive [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533116
Comments: 80
Kudos: 1613
Collections: Wasn't Quite Expecting This (But I Loved It)





	Big brother complex

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!

Ichigo hadn’t been expecting much after the whole Aizen fiasco. Well, he had expected _some_ things. He just hadn't thought that those would be difficult to meet. At best he had thought, rather naively, the entire mess would be done and over with and then they could all move on with their lives. So, back to school, exams and the occasional street fight. Back to good old Karakura shenanigans. He'd be bored, for sure, Ichigo knows himself enough to know that but bored can be a good thing. 

He had never, not even for a moment, believed he’d be doing it alone. 

It felt, strangely enough, like a betrayal. Ichigo had fought to protect them without any expectations, he had never once thought: "they owe me for this". Mainly because they don't. Ichigo fought of his own volition, he made his choice. But all of them conveniently leaving him behind as soon as his use ran its' course? That seems rather far-stretched. 

The soul reapers he could sort of understand, different worlds, different life-spans, different expectations. But his human friends? Orihime, who he had risked his life to save; Chad and him had sworn to fight for one another. It made no sense but Ichigo… Ichigo is too damn tired to keep on reaching out. 

Maybe it's his own soul, still broken, still bleeding sluggishly, still healing. Maybe it's just the crash after being high on adrenaline for so long. The fact remains that Ichigo is so damn tired that sometimes he wonders why he even bothers to get up in the morning. 

There are two-thirds of his soul just ripped away and it feels like the wound is still bleeding. He's tired, he's exhausted. He went out there and fought as best he could to keep his loved ones safe and he somehow lost them anyway. At least, he thinks, he lost them because it was their choice and not because they were ripped away. There's some comfort in that.

Better than nothing anyway.

To be honest, it takes some months of introspection, some time putting on the same routine and having nobody call him out in the utter fakeness of it before Ichigo sits up one day and reaches the conclusion that things just can't go on the same way. Not if he wants to move on. But he does reach the conclusion eventually. Much like every other decision he's made before this one, once made he doesn't look back.

So when the “exchange program” makes itself known, Ichigo takes the opportunity and doesn’t hesitate. Namimori doesn’t even come close to Karakura’s brand of chaos, not by a long shot. At least not at the beginning. Then the weird baby comes around and Ichigo sort of shrugs it off.

A baby hitman sowing chaos is not the strangest things he’s seen. Not after being Urahara’s student. Reborn seems almost tame in comparison, though equally full of shit. And then he witnesses one of these supposed training sessions and his older brother complex sort of flares up. 

He starts angrily stomping their way before he processes what he’s doing. “Oi! What the hell are you doing?!” Reaching forward, he grabs the stick figure disguising itself as a brat and pulls the kid up, carefully shoving him behind his body.

“Chaos!” The baby answer, entirely unrepentant. “I’m training my student.”

Arching a judgemental brow the tutor’s way, Ichigo snorts and turns to leave, dragging the shell-shocked brat with him. 

That is, more or less, the story of how Ichigo became Tsuna’s lightning guardian. Ichigo thinks it suits him just fine. He's a protector and has proven more than once he's very hard to kill. He's more than fine with deflecting the damage to himself. Especially if it keeps the brats safe.

Reborn and Ichigo respect one another, they just don’t necessarily see eye to eye. 

_[“Dame-Tsuna will be Decimo.” Reborn sips from his coffee._

_“Like fuck, the brat doesn’t want it,” Ichigo replies, adding the tiny ears of the rice-panda._

_“Vongola needs its heir.”_

_“I don’t care.” Packing the brat’s bento, the hybrid snags the kid as he comes flying down the stairs.]_

And then the ring battles are announced and Ichigo loses his shit. Just loses it. He nods once, turns to look at Tsuna and orders: “Brat, cover your ears.”

“But Ichi-nii!”

“No,” Ichigo interrupts, “cover them!” Nodding as Dino reaches to cover them for the brat, Ichigo turns back to scowl at the sorry bunch in front of him. “This is bullshit. This is a level of bullshit that requires talent. You should be proud of yourselves.”

“VOOI!” The silver-haired man snaps and Ichigo carelessly slaps the sword away. What is it with loud swordsmen and throwing their weapons into people's faces?

“Quit waving that around, you idiot! It’s a sword, not a pointing stick!” Pushing the man back, Ichigo continues. “Tsuna doesn’t want to be Decimo. If this asshole wants it so much, let him have it!”

“And you!” Rounding on the supposed assassin, Ichigo scowls harder, “in what world was this a good idea? Did you wake up one morning and thought: you know what I should be doing? I should go all the way to Japan to fight some 14-year-olds for jewellery. Sounds like an ok plan!” His tone makes it clear what he thinks of this. “During exams too!”

“Give me the box!” Not even turning to look who put the damn thing in his hand, Ichigo slams it on Xanxus’ chest. “Here! Have them. Take them before I force-feed them to you, you absolute moron!”

Turning back to Dino, he nods at the blonde. “You can uncover them now.”

“Ichi-nii?”

“Come on, brat. Back to bed with the bunch of you, you still have that math test to study for! Off you go, come on! March!”

Groans and complaints aside, the brats follow his instructions well enough.

And that's the end of it. Or that's what Ichigo would like to say but it turns out that the Vongola are not only morons, they're stubborn ones. History of his life, really. There are battles, Ichigo isn't necessarily a happy camper but fine, fighting is something he can sort of understand. Ichigo is a little distracted by Tsuna's old man coming back from the grave and spreading misery. Some people should have the decency to stay dead. 

The problem comes when the absolute waste of space of a father attempts to push a kid into the ring. Ichigo... Well, he has a temper, ok? And two of his mentors are former assassins, centuries-old and sadistic enough to show it. All anybody needs to know is that Lambo is once more home with Mama in time for his bedtime story and Ichigo gets to fight Leviathan. Which is an ok name but Ichigo has a tiny problem with it. "So... Why Leviathan? Because I'm not seeing it. I mean, you're a big guy but not that big and anyway... Sea monster. Shouldn't you be a Rain then?"

"What are you talking about, you punk?" The big man demands.

Ichigo frowns harder because oh, hell no. Seriously? Did nobody explain to this guy where his name comes from? Did big-bad never bother to investigate? Absently redirecting some of the lightening falling down on them, Ichigo points his replica of Zangetsu at his opponent. "You know, Leviathan, big sea monster defeated by Baal Hadad. That one? Not much lightening under the sea."

So Ichigo, in his boredom, took to reading mythology. Sue him. 

Long story short, Ichigo wins the fight by virtue of befriending Leviathan using a very violent lesson in myth and getting the man's life story in return. Tsuna looks long-suffering, the Varia are equally confused and disturbed and Ichigo has no idea on what to do with this big guy weeping into his stomach but he pats the man's head in intervals just to be sure and feels emboldened by Takeshi's thumbs up. 

**Author's Note:**

> My [Tumblr](https://dearcat1.tumblr.com)!
> 
> Come talk to me! I love answering asks. Be my evil enabler.


End file.
